PARIS (Agefi-Dow Jones)–The collective catering group Sodexo fell on the stock market on Thursday, penalized by the appointment of its chairman of the board of directors, Sophie Bellon, to the post of general manager, a decision perceived as a 180 turn. degrees by analysts.
Around 2:45 p.m., Sodexo shares lost 4.8% to 80.88 euros, showing one of the strongest declines in the SBF 120 index.
Sophie Bellon is the daughter of Pierre Bellon, the founder of Sodexo who died last month. Chairman of the Board of Directors since 2016, she represents the Bellon family, which holds 42.8% of Sodexo’s capital and 57.2% of the voting rights via the Bellon SA holding company.
The manager had been acting general manager since the departure of Denis Machuel, who was ousted at the end of September. Sodexo intended to recruit a new general manager externally to have a “fresh eye” on its sector, but this idea was finally abandoned.
“We had high-quality external candidates, with very interesting profiles. But no one met all the criteria set and, above all, none knew all of our activities”, admitted Sophie Bellon in an interview with Le Figaro. .
An absence of rupture
For UBS, the decision to use an internal solution marks a “clear step backwards”. “While investors may appreciate Sophie Bellon’s deep knowledge of the company and her willingness to accelerate its strategic priorities, we believe some were hoping for a break with tradition via an external candidate,” Stifel said.
Sodexo had established a set of criteria for recruiting its CEO, including experience in business transformation and a good knowledge of the United States, a strategic market for the collective catering sector. For Bernstein, it is thus “difficult” to consider that Sophie Bellon ticks all the boxes that the group initially wanted to fill.
The financial intermediary adds, however, that appointing an external managing director to implement an already defined strategy involved challenges. The choice of Sodexo “probably speeds up decision-making”, slice Bernstein.
Since Sophie Bellon was appointed Deputy CEO, the group has taken a series of strategic decisions to accelerate its growth. Sodexo notably reoriented the management of the School and Government Services segments at the local level. Each regional or country president is thus responsible for these segments in his area. In addition, the company launched a strategic review of its Benefits and Rewards Services business, which includes meal vouchers and gift vouchers. This division accounted for around 4% of its revenues in the 2018-2019 financial year but more than 20% of its operating profit.
UBS, which confirmed its buy advice, believes that progress on all of these fronts should support Sodexo shares, which are trading at a discount of around 35% compared to its British competitor Compass, close to its all-time high.
Julien Marion, Agefi-Dow Jones; +33 (0)1 41 27 47 94; [email protected] ed: VLV
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February 17, 2022 08:44 ET (13:44 GMT)